Means for fixing an object in its packaging container

ABSTRACT

An insert for fixing an article such as a bottle within a packaging container having a bottom wall and side walls to prevent the article from rocking. The insert is formed by a piece of flexible sheet material having two bent flaps which bear against the bottom and side walls of the container and are inclined relative to the side walls. The flaps have openings therein which so accomodate portions of the article as to maintain the position of the article within the container.

United States Patent Lehmann 1 Sept. 24, 1974 [54] MEANS FOR FIXING AN OBJECT IN ITS 1,896,326 2 1933 Northway-Lcy 229/89 PACKAGING CONTAINER 3,349,897 10/1967 Stone 206/45.l4 3,393,076 7/1968 Moyer et al. 206 4514 [75] Inventor: Myrtlrll B. Lehman? 3,563,374 2/1971 Carrisson et a1 229/22 Neui y-sur-Seine, rance R23,806 3/1954 Tardiff 206/4514 [73] Assignee: Chanel, Inc., New York, N.Y. FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [22] Fil d; M 11 1971 285,150 2/1928 Great Britain 229/39 B [21] A l N 123 226 294,741 8/1928 Great Britain 229/39 B Primary ExaminerWilliam I. Price [52] US. Cl 206/489, 206/521, 211/73, Assistant Examinerstephen Marcus 211/74, 229/14 C [51] Int. Cl B65d 85/30 57 ABSTRACT [58] Fleld of Search 229/14 14 An insert for fixing an article such as a bottle within a 229/27, 89, 90, 91, 39 B, 22, 206/45.14, 45 19 46 R 46 FR 215/12 248/152 packaging container havmg a bottom wall and side 1/73 walls to prevent the article from rocking. The insert is formed by a piece of flexible sheet material having two bent flaps which bear against the bottom and side [56] References Cited walls of the container and are inclined relative to the UNITED STATES PATENTS side walls. The flaps have openings therein which so 558,433 4/1896 Stoddard 248/152 omodate portions of the article as to maintain the 1 g l position of the article within the container.

eac 1,752,655 4/1930 Scherotto 21 1/73' 3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENIEWPMB" 3.831;479 sum an 2 MEANS FOR FIXING AN OBJECT IN ITS PACKAGING CONTAINER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an insert for fixing an object or article, for example a bottle, in its packaging container, thus preventing the article from rocking therein.

For this purpose, means are known which comprise a base made, for example, of plastic material and solidly connected to the bottom of the packaging container, the base having a recess into which a portion of the article to be packaged, can be forced. Such means call for relatively complicated manufacturing procedures, the special bases having to be attached to the bottom of the packaging container, so that the cost of producing them is high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, the insert for fixing an object in its packaging container is characterized in that it is formed by a single cut-out from a sheet of material which is both flexible and rigid, the cut-out com prising at least two bent-out flaps which bear against the bottom and against the side walls of said packaging container, and are inclined with respect to the walls. The flaps are provided with openings, the object to be packaged resting on at least one portion of the contour of each of said openings.

Advantageously and to enable the flaps to bear uniformly against the side walls of the packaging container over the entire length of these flaps, thus preventing them from becoming deformed, the peripheral contour of each flap matches the intersection of the side walls in the plane of each flap.

Similarly, to enable the article or object to be efficiently held in position by the insert the contour of the opening in each flap against which the object bears, matches the intersection of that portion of the object that passes through the opening, in the plane of the flap.

The flaps constituting the fixing means can either be directly interconnected along a fold line when the flaps are two in number, or they can be made integral with each other by means of an intermediate flap to which each of them is hinged along a fold line.

To ensure that the insert is held in position in the packaging container in the best possible manner, the contour of the intermediate flap matches, between said hinged flaps, the contour of the bottom of the packaging container upon which it rests.

When the insert comprises only two flaps, it is particularly suitable for polyhedral packaging containers having a polygonal bottom, the hinge line common to the two flaps then being superposed upon one of the diagonals of the bottom.

OUTLINE OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a bottle held in its packaging container by means of an insert in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the insert shown in FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 3 to 8 illustrate various other embodiments of inserts according to the invention, the inserts being shown in the flat condition before the flaps have been bent out.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows in perspective and in dot-dash lines, a parallelepiped packaging container 1 and a bottle 2. To enable this bottle 2 to be held firmly in position in the packaging container and to prevent it from rocking therein, there is provided an insert 3 (see also F IG. 2) formed by a lozenge-shaped piece of cardboard bent along its small diagonal 4 to form two flaps 5 and 6.

The small diagonal 4 of the insert 3 is of a length substantially equal to the diagonal of the square or rectangular bottom 7 of the packaging container 1, whereas the peripheral edges 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the flaps 5 and 6 match the lines of intersection of the various surfaces of the packaging container in the planes of these flaps, when the diagonal is superposed on the corresponding diagonal of the bottom 7. Thus the flaps are caused to bear along their entire periphery on the side walls of the packaging container 1.

Each of flaps 5 and 6 is provided with an opening 12 and 13, respectively, the shape of which matches the intersection, in the planes of the flaps, of those portions of the bottle 2 which pass through the openings when insert 3 is in position in packaging container 1. Since bottle 2 is of parallepiped form and its bottom 14 is planar, if trihedral portions of the bottle are introduced into said openings, the latter will be of triangular form.

It will be evident that if the bottle were turned about the axis of the packaging container, the shape of its openings would change and could be rectangular if the bottle were turned through forty-five degrees with respect to the packaging container.

The triangular openings 12 and 13 thus have sides 12a and 13a which are parallel to fold line 4 and are adapted to support the bottle 2 by its base 14, and sides 12b, 12c, 13b and 130, against which the lateral walls of the bottle bear.

In FIG. 2, the base of the bottle is shown in dot-dash lines.

The insert 15 shown in FIG. 3 is intended to hold an object of parallepiped form in position in a packaging container which is also of parallepiped form, and which has a square base 16 (see dot-dash lines). The insert 15 comprises two triangular flaps l7 and 18, respectively, similar to the flaps 5 and 6 of the insert shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Flaps l7 and 18 contain triangular openings 19 and 20, respectively, and are hinged to a common intermediate flap 21 bytwo parallel fold lines 22 and 23, respectively.

The peripheral contour of the intermediate flap 21 matches the shape of base 16 between hinged flaps 17 and 18. It will be seen that after flaps l7 and 18 have been-bent out, about lines 22 and 23, respectively, it is possible to introduce the insert 15 into a packaging container of parallelepiped form, the insert being pushed-into the container until the intermediate flap 21 comes into contact with base 16 of the packaging container. Flaps l7 and 18 are then inclined relative to the lateral surfaces of the packaging container, and their peripheral contours are applied against said surfaces. An article of parallelepiped form can then be introduced so that it rests against the edges of the openings 19 and 20.

The insert 24 shown in FIG. 4, is intended to hold a flat-bottomed cylindrical object in position in a similarly-shaped cylindrical packaging container having a flat base 25 (shown in dot-dash lines). Insert 24 comprises two flaps 26 and 27 in the form of portions of ellipses, these flaps containing openings 28 and 29, respectively, likewise in the form of portions of ellipses and hinged to a common intermediate flap 30 along two parallel fold lines 31 and 32, respectively.

The shapes of the contours of the of the flaps 26 and 27 and of openings 28 and 29, respectively, match the intersections of the side walls of the packaging container and of the packaged object in the planes of the flaps. The peripheral contour of the intermediate flap 30 matches the shape of the base of the packaging container between the hinged flaps 26 and 27. As in the case of the insert shown in FIG. 3, it will be seen that insert 24 can be pushed into a cylindrical packaging container until its intermediate flap 30 is superposed upon the base 25 of the packaging container, after which flaps 26 and 27 are enabled, by means of the openings 28 and 29, to hold in position a cylindrical article, the shape of which matches the form of these openings.

FIGS. and 6 illustrate two inserts 33 and 34, respectively, intended to hold a flat-bottomed cylindrical object in position in a polyhedral packaging container having a flat hexagonal base 35. insert 33 comprises two flaps 36 and 37 which are of trapezoidal form and are hinged about a fold line 38 adapted to be superposed on a large diagonal of the hexagonal base 35. The flaps 36 and 37 contain openings 39 and 40, respectively, in the form of portions of ellipses for receiving a cylindrical object.

On the other hand, insert 34 contains two triangular flaps 41 and 42 hinged to an intermediate flap 45 along parallel fold lines 43 and 44, respectively. The fold lines 43 and 44 can be superposed on two small parallel diagonals of base 35, whereas between flaps 41 and 42, flap 45 matches the shape of base 35. Flaps 41 and 42 likewise contain holes 46 and 47, respectively, for receiving a cylindrical object.

Inserts 48 and 49 of the invention, illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, comprise, respectively, three and four flaps, and may be used, for example, for holding objects in position in packaging containers of parallelopiped form and having a square base 50.

Insert 48 comprises three flaps 51, 52 and 53, hinged along fold lines 54, 55 and 56 to a common triangular intermediate flap 57 bounded by these lines. The flaps contain openings 58, 59 and 60 adapted to hold in position a cylindrical object when the flaps are placed in the packaging container. The insert can be placed on the base. 50 with a tip of flap 57 superposed on the base at one of the corners of the latter, whereas the other tips of the flap are located at the sides of this base.

Insert 49 comprises four flaps 61, 62, 63 and 64 hinged along fold lines 65, 66, 67 and 68, respectively, to a common square intermediate flap 69 bounded by these lines. The flaps contain triangular openings 70, 71, 72 and 73, adapted to hold an object of parallepiped form in position when the flaps are placed in the packaging container. Insert 49 can be placed on base 50 with the comers of square flap located at the sides of the base, the insert being prevented from turning, due to the fact that flaps 60 to 64 bear against the side walls of the packaging container.

It is obvious that within the framework of the present invention, the embodiments can be modified, particularly by the substitution of equivalent technical means.

I claim:

1. A packaged article comprising:

A. a bottle having a flat bottom and vertical side surfaces;

B. a packaging container having a flat bottom wall and vertical sidewalls, and

C. an insert fixing said bottle within said container to maintain the bottle erecttherein out of contact with said bottom wall and said sidewalls and to prevent said bottle from rocking, said insert being constituted by a piece of flexible material having at least two bent flaps which bear against the bottom and sidewalls of the container and are inclined with respect thereto, said two flaps being hinged to a common intermediate flap along fold lines and having generally isosceles triangular openings therein to define a horizontal base support for the flat bottom of said bottle above the bottom wall of said container in parallel relation thereto, the inclined sides of said opening engaging the vertical side surfaces of said bottle to hold siad bottle securely in an erect position within said container, the intermediate flap being superposed on the base of the container.

2. A packaged article as set forth in claim 1 wherein said bottle has a square cross-section and the isosceles sides of the triangular opening are straight to engage the sides of the bottle.

3. A packaged article as set forth in claim 1 wherein said bottle has a round cross-section and the isosceles sides of the triangular opening are contoured to engage the sides of the bottle. 

1. A packaged article comprising: A. a bottle having a flat bottom and vertical side surfaces; B. a packaging container having a flat bottom wall and vertical sidewalls, and C. an insert fixing said bottle within said container to maintain the bottle erect therein out of contact with said bottom wall and said sidewalls and to prevent said bottle from rocking, said insert being constituted by a piece of flexible material having at least two bent flaps which bear against the bottom and sidewalls of the container and are inclined with respect thereto, said two flaps being hinged to a common intermediate flap along fold lines and having generally isosceles triangular openings therein to define a horizontal base support for the flat bottom of said bottle above the bottom wall of said container in parallel relation thereto, the inclined sides of said opening engaging the vertical side surfaces of said bottle to hold siad bottle securely in an erect position within said container, the intermediate flap being superposed on the base of the container.
 2. A packaged article as set forth in claim 1 wherein said bottle has a square cross-section and the isosceles sides of the triangular opening are straight to engage the sides of the bottle.
 3. A packaged article as set forth in claim 1 wherein said bottle has a round cross-section and the isosceles sides of the triangular opening are contoured to engage the sides of the bottle. 